HEAVY vehicle “cowboy operators” and rogue truck drivers have been targeted in a one-day blitz, with police warning their time is up.

Operation Rolling Thunder – Australia’s biggest ever heavy vehicle crackdown – saw hundreds of trucks stopped on the New England Highway near Willow Tree on Thursday as part of a massive safety crackdown.

Several Oxley highway patrol officers, together with specialist officers from the Joint Traffic Taskforce (JTTF) in Sydney and RMS inspectors, stopped every truck headed north or south at Kankool, south of Willow Tree.

Cops stop truckies in their tracks in crackdown | Gallery, video

The Leader was there as police defected eight vehicles and issued 30 infringement notices for offences like breaching minimum rest rules, overweight loads and log book offences.

Several trucks had their speed computers downloaded to determine if they had been tampered with to allow them to exceed the 100km/h limit. Officers conducted 250 RBTs and 50 roadside drug tests, with two drivers testing positive to methamphetamine.

“It’s quite astonishing that people are still driving around with drugs in their system,” Sergeant Michael Buko said.

The police operation at Kankool, south of Tamworth

He said the days of cowboy operators who think “they can get away with it” are gone.

“We make no apologies for trucks that are defected and drivers who are taken off the road,” he said, adding police were homing in on several local companies.

“The days where ‘she’ll be right’ are gone.

“So companies and drivers be warned, make sure your heavy vehicles are 100 per cent compliant or you won’t be driving.

The operation was sparked after five people were killed in January in three heavy vehicle crashes in two days including one at Jackadgery, near Glen Innes.

Chair of the Australian Trucking Association Geoff Crouch said the number of deaths in NSW from crashes involving semi-trailers “increased dramatically” but he said the majority of fatal multi-vehicle crashes involving trucks were not the driver’s fault.

“Truck compliance operations cannot possibly prevent these crashes, so governments need to take a broader, long term approach to safety as well as supporting police blitzes,” Chair of the Australian Trucking Association Geoff Crouch said